This application relates to an improved milking barn system and apparatus and it is an object of the invention to provide an improved system and apparatus of this nature.
Over a period of years the direction of improving milking barn systems and apparatus has been continually toward increased efficiency and usefulness. In general, this trend has paralleled the trend of increasing costs of producing milk as well as of any other articles or products of commerce.
In the very early days, each cow was milked by hand, the cows being disposed parallel to each other and at right angles to a feeding stall. In this era, the milking attendant had to seat himself between the cows and proceed with the milking operation. Subsequently, there came the milking machine wherein teat cups were attached to the teats of the cow's udder and the milking proceeded in this fashion. In this operation, one attendant could milk several cows at the same time, so long as there was a milking machine attachment for each cow.
Subsequently still, cows were herded, usually single file, into a milking barn and the cows were disposed at an angle of perhaps 30 degrees to the direction of the feed stations with the cows, however, being close enough to each other so that each would touch its neighbor for satisfying the herd instinct. These systems or apparatus have been referred to as echelon systems for herringbone systems of which the herringbone terminology will be used throughout this application. A system and apparatus of this nature is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,969,039 to Golay. Subsequently further still, as for example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,320 to Holm the cows were herded into milking stalls of the herringbone variety, the cows moving in single file. However, the position of the feed bowl was adjustable so that the cow could be positioned toward the rear of the milking stall as far as desired. This enabled the stalls to be adjusted for cows of different lengths. In structures such as shown in the Holm patent, the cows still moved into the milking barn in single file and moved outwardly thereof in the same manner.
In the Jacobs et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,810,442, cows are moved into and away from the milking areas by means of moving platforms or the like. But, each stall has a swinging gate on it and the cows move out of the milking stalls in parallel which is to say simultaneously and thus are moved out of the milking area at a faster rate. The swinging gates, however, are wide and take up an excessive amount of space and move into the egress area thereby still making it difficult to move the cows out of the milking area expeditiously. In the Vandenberg U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,528 a herringbone milking apparatus is illustrated wherein a plurality of swinging gates is available for the cows to exit through, but only one gate is provided for every two cows. In this arrangement while cows are exiting more rapidly than other earlier arrangements, there is still the delay occasioned by one cow having to follow another one in egressing from the milking stalls. In addition the gates take up substantial room and thereby tend to clog the egress area. In the Nielsen et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,467 a herringbone milking structure is illustrated wherein the cows enter in single file and also exit single file. In the Nielsen patent a framework or stanchion is adjusted to the shoulders of each cow. The stanchion structure is unitary so that it is adjusted at the same time for all cows and thus all cows are moved backwardly at the same time. In this manner, as indicated above, the stanchion is adjusted in order to accommodate cows of different lengths. Increased efficiencies are achieved by milking cows of the same general length at the same time; that is to say, short cows one time and longer cows at another.
In all of these prior arrangements, inefficiencies still remain because of the time necessary to exit the cows from the milking stalls into the egress area. And also because the adjustability of the feeding arrangements and the positioning of the cows in the milking stalls is not as efficient as it might be. Accordingly, it is a further object of the invention to provide improved herringbone milking barn system and apparatus which will overcome the defects of the prior art.